Random collection of YouTube videos that have tickled me silly lately:
1. For anyone who has or have had to potty train someone … younger:
2. And I thought musicians appearing on raucous variety shows were exclusive to Chinese pop!
3. I’d still steer clear of cats, with their retractable claws and all, but this video has made me see the world through their eyes … and it all makes complete sense now. Hey, so my dog was like a cat in so many ways, with the wreckage and the mystery …
4. First in a series of a manic depressive teaching Photoshop … nothing against manic depressives, mind: love the depressive, hate the depression.
5. Back to Tiny Toon Adventures … I’ve been reminded of how much I loved them! (“We’re tiny, we’re toony, we’re all a little looney …”) Apparently, Bugs Bunny’s personality was ’split’ in two for the show: his scheming side turned into Buster Bunny, and his screwball side became Babs Bunny. But then what does it say that Buster and Babs are supposed to be a couple?! ”Who wrote this?“
Lady Gaga isn’t the craziest thing out there right now:
Who the heck thought of wrapping guys in shiny ribbons?!
A lot more animals than usual getting slaughtered, and not for eats:
Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins
Frightened calves galloped around in vain as the men, wearing red bandanas and armbands, pursued them and chopped off their heads. Banned from entering the animal pen, hundreds of visitors scrambled up the three-metre walls to catch a glimpse of the carnage.
Am very curious about the sort of wishes people expect to be granted “within five years” after such a sacrifice.
Thirsty camels face bullet after terrorising Australian town
Glenys Oogjes, executive director of the national advocacy group Animals Australia, said the plan to kill camels by helicopter was barbaric, and that the community could instead set up barriers to keep out the camels.
“It’s a terrible thing that people react to these events by shooting,” she said. “The real concern is the terrible distress and wounding when shot by helicopter … There will be terrible suffering.“
I imagine that I’d be quite frightened living in that town too. Are they in fact being merciful in a way, as it would take longer for a camel to die of thirst than from a misaimed gun wound? But what would be more painful, I wonder: struggling and failing, then dying naturally, or have all that taken away from you in the name of fear and convenience and … what?
Never had an interest in the cultural artefact that is Lady Gaga until I started cresting on the wave of work whose spectral shadow had threatened to bury me deep down in a shallow grave. Then the desultory nature of my soul led me into the ephemeral wasteland of pop culture, where irresponsible cool masquerades as intellectual blow.
When you look at Gaga as any other ‘pop star’, she’s just plain weird. But when you look at her as a performer, she’s brilliant. But I wonder if she has considered in full the consequences of being the object of super-fandom. The probabilities of train wrecks and comings to grief, for example, when drug use is portrayed as a mandatory pitstop to fame and fortune. Though maybe I’m being too harsh — maybe she’s just riffing on an old, old theme.
So I enjoy her videos as works of art, how she’s all Warholian in her art-factory-white-tower, conscientiously set apart from the clones and drones, though ultimately she sucks in the cash from the same veins, doesn’t she? Her music … veers so close to being the apotheosis of scarring songs by Aqua and its ilk. But her actual, insane ‘disco stick’, now tickles me silly, and that Paparazzi video is superb (psycho Minnie Mouse = brilliant). This song’s my favourite though, quoting as it does so very many elements I’ve enjoyed, from riffs to moves:
Oh, but it looks like I distracted myself again, away from proper gratitude for why the wave has been crested, with the end in sight — it was brought to my sudden attention through the goodness of fellowship that these verses have been made manifest in my life:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.
(Proverbs 3:5–8 NRSV)
No, it hasn’t been smooth sailing, and there haven’t been much by way of easy pies, but my Strength and my Shield, my Friend and my Brother, my ”Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace“, has been with me, and has indeed ”done all things well“. Thank you, Lord.
Never more than now do I agree with the above illustration
Was bewildered today when sussurations of a mostly nefarious nature started seeping into my consciousness: ‘are you sure you can meet the deadline?’ My first thought in reply: ‘Can’t we?’ Uh oh. I couldn’t give in to despair, though. Could only take the dire warning into my stride and beg off panicking for now.
Took a walk during lunch to clear the head in the bracing cold. Was rewarded with an azure sky, the sight of a line of suited male models of vaguely Italian origin, sparkling in the sun as they brandished briefcases for the camera, and the warmth ensuring from this answer to the question that had been simmering within:
Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.
– The Westminster Shorter Catechism (AD 1647)
Then a more disturbing question surfaced as the day wore on, and I realised that I was going to miss yet another appointment with what’s supposed to be most precious to me:
Question: Have my priorities become so screwed up that my life is in fact dedicated to pleasing sociopaths? (It’s supposed to be God first, then everything and everyone else!)
Answer: Heck, yes, and the more I exert the authority of my will, the softer are the blows of my remorse. Sickness!
I don’t want to be like this. I hope I’m not in the ‘losers’ row. I’d rather be among the ‘clueless’. But I want no part of ignorance and idiocy either! And I’d much prefer being with the ‘losers’ in the world’s eyes, than be counted among its sociopaths.
Thinking out of the box is no longer good enough. I have to think outside the pyramid! Outside the system … the systematic dismantlement of my socially constructed self in favour of the application of systemic theology to the bare bones of my soul. Let me die to myself.
